Yep, it was a struggle even when I thought I was supposed to be writing pseudocode. I've had some really great interviews using coderpad and similar software (including the company I'm at now), and it's such a better representation of how the interviewee actually codes.

I don't get how my interviewer (an engineer), didn't see the problem with it. I know that Google wants to use their own products, but that can't possibly be the norm for other Google interviews.